OakMonster’s Den

I just got a spam mail with the subject line “Assailant Anchovies” soon after “She had a chicken roti”.

I’ve seen many other odd subject lines recently but, man, this one takes the cake!

What about you?  What have you seen recently in the spam trend?

With the newley discovered favorite Cinnamon Dolce latte in hand, I’m proud to post the Oscar nomination, fresh out of Hollywood.

So far, I’ve been about 75-80% accurate even when I haven’t seen most of the movies listed. I will make my prediction later–which comes down to a will win and should win splits.
You see, the arts of predicting the Oscars is NOT what YOU think is the best, but what the masses think. A lot of it has to do with marketing campaign and Hollyweird politics.

My first prediction here? Meryl Streep will walk away with Prada although Helen Mirren should win. See what I’m talking about now?
Also, on the note of movies, if you like the WoW Uber White and Nerdy in the last post, I have more coming your way.

BEST PICTURE
“Babel”
“The Departed”
“The Queen”
“Letters From Iwo Jima”
“Little Miss Sunshine”

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Adriana Barraza, “Babel”
Cate Blanchett, “Notes on a Scandal”
Abigail Breslin, “Little Miss Sunshine”
Jennifer Hudson, “Dreamgirls”
Rinko Kikuchi, “Babel”

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Alan Arkin, “Little Miss Sunshine”
Eddie Murphy, “Dreamgirls”
Mark Wahlberg, “The Departed”
Djimon Hounsou, “Blood Diamond”
Jackie Earle Haley, “Little Children”

BEST ACTRESS
Meryl Streep, “The Devil Wears Prada”
Helen Mirren, “The Queen ”
Penelope Cruz, “Volver”
Kate Winslet, “Little Children”
Judi Dench, “Notes on a Scandal”

BEST ACTOR
Leonardo DiCaprio, “Blood Diamond”
Forest Whitaker, “The Last King of Scotland”
Will Smith, “The Pursuit of Happyness”
Peter O’Toole, “Venus”
Ryan Gosling, “Half Nelson”

BEST DIRECTOR
Clint Eastwood, “Letters From Iwo Jima”
Paul Greengrass, “United 93″
Martin Scorsese, “The Departed”
Stephen Frears, “The Queen”
Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, “Babel”

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Guillermo Arriaga, “Babel”
Michael Arndt, “Little Miss Sunshine”
Iris Yamashita & Paul Haggis, “Letters From Iwo Jima”
Guillermo del Toro, “Pan’s Labyrinth”
Peter Morgan, “The Queen”

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Patrick Marber , “Notes on a Scandal”
William Monahan, “The Departed”
Sacha Baron Cohen & Anthony Hines & Peter Baynham & Dan Mazer Story by Sacha Baron Cohen & Peter Baynham & Anthony Hines & Todd Phillips, “Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan”
Todd Field & Tom Perrotta, “Little Children”
Alfonso Cuarón & Timothy J. Sexton and David Arata and Mark Fergus & Hawk Ostby, “Children of Men”

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
“After the Wedding” (Denmark)
“Days of Glory (Indigènes)” (Algeria)
“Lives of Others” (Germany)
“Pan’s Labyrinth” (Mexico)
“Water” (Canada)

BEST ANIMATED FILM
“Cars”
“Happy Feet”
“Monster House”

BEST ART DIRECTION
“Dreamgirls,” Art Direction: John Myhre; Set Decoration: Nancy Haigh
“The Good Shepherd,” Art Direction: Jeannine Oppewall; Set Decoration: Gretchen Rau and Leslie E. Rollins
“Pan’s Labyrinth,” Art Direction: Eugenio Caballero; Set Decoration: Pilar Revuelta
“Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest,” Art Direction: Rick Heinrichs; Set Decoration: Cheryl A. Carasik
“The Prestige,” Art Direction: Nathan Crowley; Set Decoration: Julie Ochipinti

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
“The Black Dahlia,” Vilmos Zsigmond
“Children of Men,” Emmanuel Lubezki
“The Illusionist,” Dick Pope
“Pan’s Labyrinth,” Guillermo Navarro
“The Prestige,” Wally Pfister

BEST COSTUME DESIGN
“Curse of the Golden Flower,” Yee Chung Man
“The Devil Wears Prada,” Patricia Field
“Dreamgirls,” Sharen Davis
“Marie Antoinette,” Milena Canonero
“The Queen,” Consolata Boyle

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
“Deliver Us from Evil,” Amy Berg and Frank Donner
“An Inconvenient Truth,” Davis Guggenheim
“Iraq in Fragments,” James Longley and John Sinno
“Jesus Camp,” Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady
“My Country, My Country,” Laura Poitras and Jocelyn Glatzer

BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT SUBJECT
“The Blood of Yingzhou District,” Ruby Yang and Thomas Lennon
“Recycled Life,” Leslie Iwerks and Mike Glad
“Rehearsing a Dream,” Karen Goodman and Kirk Simon
“Two Hands,” Nathaniel Kahn and Susan Rose Behr

BEST FILM EDITING
“Babel,” Stephen Mirrione and Douglas Crise
“Blood Diamond,” Steven Rosenblum
“Children of Men,” Alex Rodríguez and Alfonso Cuarón
“The Departed,” Thelma Schoonmaker
“United 93,” Clare Douglas, Christopher Rouse and Richard Pearson

BEST MAKEUP
“Apocalypto,” Aldo Signoretti and Vittorio Sodano
“Click,” Kazuhiro Tsuji and Bill Corso
“Pan’s Labyrinth,” David Marti and Montse Ribe

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE
“Babel,” Gustavo Santaolalla
“The Good German,” Thomas Newman
“Notes on a Scandal,” Philip Glass
“Pan’s Labyrinth,” Javier Navarrete
“The Queen,” Alexandre Desplat

BEST ORIGINAL SONG
“I Need to Wake Up” from “An Inconvenient Truth,” Music and lyric by Melissa Etheridge
“Listen” from “Dreamgirls,” Music by Henry Krieger and Scott Cutler; lyric by Anne Preven
“Love You I Do” from “Dreamgirls,” Music by Henry Krieger; lyric by Siedah Garrett
“Our Town” from “Cars,” Music and Lyric by Randy Newman
“Patience” from “Dreamgirls,” Music by Henry Krieger; lyric by Willie Reale

BEST ANIMATED SHORT FILM
“The Danish Poet,” Torill Kove
“Lifted,” Gary Rydstrom
“The Little Matchgirl,” Roger Allers and Don Hahn
“Maestro,” Geza M. Toth
“No Time for Nuts,” Chris Renaud and Michael Thurmeier

BEST LIVE ACTION SHORT FILM
“Binta and the Great Idea (Binta Y La Gran Idea)” Javier Fesser and Luis Manso
“Éramos Pocos (One Too Many)” Borja Cobeaga
“Helmer & Son,” Soren Pilmark and Kim Magnusson
“The Saviour,” Peter Templeman and Stuart Parkyn
“West Bank Story,” Ari Sandel

BEST SOUND EDITING
“Apocalypto,” Sean McCormack and Kami Asgar
“Blood Diamond,” Lon Bender
“Flags of Our Fathers,” Alan Robert Murray and Bub Asman
“Letters from Iwo Jima”,” Alan Robert Murray
“Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest,” Christopher Boyes and George Watters II

BEST SOUND MIXING
“Apocalypto,” Kevin O’Connell, Greg P. Russell and Fernando Camara
“Blood Diamond,” Andy Nelson, Anna Behlmer and Ivan Sharrock
“Dreamgirls,” Michael Minkler, Bob Beemer and Willie Burton
“Flags of Our Fathers,” John Reitz, Dave Campbell, Gregg Rudloff and Walt Martin
“Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest,” Paul Massey, Christopher Boyes and Lee Orloff

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS
“Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest,” John Knoll, Hal Hickel, Charles Gibson and Allen Hall
“Poseidon,” Boyd Shermis, Kim Libreri, Chaz Jarrett and John Frazier
“Superman Returns,” Mark Stetson, Neil Corbould, Richard R. Hoover and Jon Thum

HONORARY ACADEMY AWARD
Ennio Morricone

One must wonder truly how white and nerdy this kid is.

I mean, I was going to post something important and maybe even meaningful. But seriously, how can you top this.

(Non-geek reference: this video features a blood elf character from World of Warcraft.  There are many races of characters in this game and everyone has different sets of dance moves. i.e. the orcs do “Hammertime”, dark elf ladies have the stripper moves.)

5 weird things about me regarding food.

Pretty much, we got rid of the wicker chair that dubs as my suit/clothes to be ironed closet. So the clothes are on my chair.

Oh yes. My anniversary present from Brandon is this:

Yep. Suddenly my desktop trebuchet kit for Brandon looks so retarded.

The rest of our anniversary was quite unexpected as well. We woke up late. Well, THAT was expected. I made brunch and we headed out to get our massage at the spa around 1. The massage and salt scrub was AMAZING! After that, we went across the parking lot for In N’ Out, then Ikea. James and Aurora came over to help us put together this massive bookcase and we went to dinner at Red Robin.

After that, we FINALLY watch our wedding highlight reel my cousin finally got it to us. Yep. Nicky took his sweet time and it was perfect. Then I poured me a glass of wine and watched “The Last Kiss”. Brandon glanced in and out of that movie while running amuck WoW Burning Crusade.
Yep. That’s 5th wedding anniverary Oakley & Brandon’s style! Told you we ain’t romantic people.

Tomorrow, I will be filling those cubby holes with the rest of my crap.

Gosh. I do have a lot of crap. LOL.

Okay. Jakey-boy. You’re fucking awesome!

P.S. It took me almost an hour to figure out how to embed a video onto here–surely we ain’t in Blogger any more!–so you’d better appreciate the goddamn video. 

Yep. Done.

Work? The craziness is picking up. Big event coming up in February and people are going to start registering. Guess who’s making all the collateral materials AND working on registration all at the same time?

Home? I got home today and made dinner, did laundry AND do the dishes. I’m fucking tired, man.

Brandon and I are adjusting to his new work hours. Brandon now gets home about the same time or just a tad later than me, but he has Fridays off.

So what I’m used to his coming home to an already decompressed Brandon. That saves me another hour or two in the evening before I get there. Now? We’re both decompressing at the same time. The expansion pack for World of Warcraft arrived, so he’s up later playing. And I’m up later playing with this blog and trying to consolidate all things Oakley to this one joint.

Despite the fact that we live together, I don’t think we’ve seen that much of each other this week. But tomorrow should fix that a bit.
What’s tomorrow? It’s our 5th anniversary. Our traditional gift for this one is wood. I got him a miniture trabuchet for his desk. He’s getting me a bookshelf for my office to replace the now-completely-buried wicker loveseat I had put in my office.

And we’re giving ourselves a treat of couple’s massage at the local spa. It’ll be his first.

But for now? I’m done. Done for the day. Nonetheless, let me leave you with THE BEST recent SNL guest ever….

…ah…crap…how do I post a video on WordPress??

Dear Stephen,

You handle O’Reilly so well last night.  Although, I didn’t catch you nailing O’Reilly later on but I’m sure it’s on the TIVO.
I love you not only because of your bravery to stand up for Truthiness, your fantastic adventures with Tek Jensen, and your ability to get your name on a bridge, into a mascot, and even an eagle, but because your show gave me tickets and swag to auction off at my organization’s gala last year.

Yours,
OakMonster

Especially when the sky is absolutely gorgeous.

To be respectful to folks around me on the road, I did not snap a picture of Downtown LA skyline, backed by clear blue sky, lit by the magic hour sun this morning.

First, it was the Choir of the Angels moment on the 710.

I was crawling down the stretch on the 710, a leftover carnage of an already cleared accident. There was light in the sky. ]I came up the hill and around the corner, just where the far left lane doubles up to split off to the 5, and the traffic started to clear. I stepped on the gas and my speed demon came out to play. At that moment, the sun decided to come out too. And suddenly, I was at awe at the purple mountains and bright blue sky. It was magic.

[Insert Choir of the Angels here]

Then again, as I got off the 101 on Fourth, heading to Downtown. I drove over this bridge many times, just never at this time of day, or in this clear of a weather. But today, the sight was just majestic.

This time, the proverbial Choir was replaced by the actual music from my stereo. The intro to the epic Meat Loaf Classic, “I would do anything for love (but I won’t do that)”.

Seriously. Perfect commuting moment.

The early morning light gives me an entirely new perspective on Downtown. I mean, I drove the exact same route yesterday around 6 a.m., given it was still dark then, but not the same effect.

Then again, when the LA sky was New Mexico clear blue, tinted with the last bit of the night sky–and not one bit of the yellowish brown muck–it is truly a rare moment.

Oh yeah. And it’s still fuckin’ cold. And last night? It snowed in fuckin’ Malibu and hailed in Westwood!

And silly me, keep going to my window before bed last night, hoping it’d snow in Los Alamitos.  Consolation prize?  Ice crystals on the roof of my car, around the edges of my back windshield, and a little bit on the trunk.